Photo Credit: Joel WyncottDequency, which bills itself as “the world’s first Web3 music synchronization licensing marketplace,” has announced the completion of a $4.5 million funding round.
Atlanta-headquartered Borderless Capital, a self-described “Blockchain VC firm and a modern financial institution,” led the just-unveiled multimillion-dollar raise of Dequency with a $1.5 million contribution. Endeavor and Riptide Music Group also participated in the round, as did a number of individual investors.
Founded by former Riptide Music CEO Keatly Haldeman, TuneCore co-founder George Howard, and ACME Innovation CEO Mark Ross, Dequency arrived on the scene early last year.
The Web3 sync platform is currently in beta, according to its website, but plans to eliminate “third parties from music licensing transactions to increase speed of payment, reduce fees, and give control of the system to market participants.”
“When Dequency launches,” the year-old startup’s release specifies, “the marketplace will be the only option to license music on-chain for blockchain-native content such as motion-visual NFT projects, games, and metaverse productions.”
Higher-ups intend to put today’s capital influx towards building out the company’s “peer-to-peer function, enabling music creators to upload their work to the platform and directly license for use in visual art projects.”
Addressing his company’s raise in a statement, Dequency co-founder George Howard took aim at the perceived inefficiency of competing sync businesses as well as the overall state of the space.
“Licensing of music into film, tv, or other applications in 2022 is currently akin to booking travel in 1975; inefficient, rife with unnecessary intermediaries/rent seekers, and closed off to those unable to get through the corporate gatekeepers,” said the Open Music Initiative founding member Howard. “At Dequency we are guided by a ‘purpose, not product’ mindset to help creators establish and maintain sustainable careers on their own terms.”
Dequency’s $4.5 million round arrives amid continued sync-licensing growth – and an increasing music-industry focus on Web3 technology.
About two weeks back, Warner Music Group announced a “label-wide partnership” with music-NFT platform OneOf. Addressing the deal in a statement, WMG chief digital officer and EVP of business development Oana Ruxandra said in part: “Web3 is a massive leap forward in technology: it will expand the scale and scope of both human and machine interactions far beyond what we can imagine today.”
More recently, artist-management firm YMU hired seven-year CAA agent Brad Pophal as head of Web3 and NFT for US music. And earlier this week, Range Media Partners officially announced the launch of “Classick Club, a forward-thinking blockchain, NFT and Web3 company focused on bringing the prestige and counterculture of classic rock’n’roll into the nascent metaverse.”
